Page 63 of Marked for Execution

“I know.”

“He needs to change his bandages.”

“How much longer until we make it back?”

“If nothing goes wrong, maybe another few days. We have to take the roundabout way in case we have a tail. That last group didn’t grow that big for no reason. To have a collection of vehicles like that? They’ve been traveling far to collect shit. Who knows if we’ll run into one of their groups on a supply run,” Samuel explained.

“What if…” I started as all the worries and bad case scenarios ran through my mind.

Flashes of me biting into Elijah’s neck and the way the blood tasted back at the last compound flitted behind my eyes.

“What if what?” Gunner asked.

Turning and sitting up, I ran my fingers through my hair. The fear of them condemning me still debilitated me at times. I had to remind myself that we had been through so much shit together already, and they would never leave me behind.

“What if I’m a vampire?” I said weakly, hoping they didn’t hear me, and hoping they did.

“Impossible,” Reed retorted. “I’ve run across too many of them to know that much. Could you have vampire blood in you? Possible. But I haven’t seen you go off on any killing sprees when you’ve gotten hungry. You’re still eating normal food like the rest of us.”

“Reed’s right. After the shit we’ve been through? Hell no. You’re still Fitri,” Gunner said with a finality.

My eyes watered with their acceptance.What if I was still changing, though?None of us knew the actual process, because none of us had been privy to that information by living behind community walls.

“What if I slowly become like them?”

Samuel stood up and added another piece of wood to the fire. “Even if you did, you think Eliseo is going to let anything happen to you? He’d massacre everything in his path. So would we. You’re part of the team. If we have to leave shit behind, we will. It’s not like we haven't done it before. Hell, you were surviving out there on your own before you arrived.”

Letting out a sigh, I placed my head in my hands.What if Eliseo was not there to protect me anymore? What if this infection got the best of him and poisoned his body slowly, killing him in silence?

My heart constricted at the thought, the pain almost palpable. Suddenly, I was taken back to a moment in the past.

“It’s only been you, Faheema. You know that. Come on, just a kiss.”

Maverick’s hands rubbed my arms as I rested my face against his chest. Father would never approve of this. I was too young.

“Father would kill me.”

“Would he? Nah. You’re his only daughter. Not going to happen. Come on,” he whispered, tilting my head up to place a chaste kiss on my lips. “He’s not going to find out.”

I had never felt about a boy the way I did him. He had always been there around my family with his dimpled smiles and his chivalry. Maybe Mother would approve. Maybe it would be okay.

The smell of burnt flesh and blood imprinted in my nostrils, reminding me of exactly what happened at my once home community. The bloodshed and hate pushed me to the brink of a fear so strong that Maverick became a part of the casualties around me. I didn’t even know if he was alive. If he was, he would have never forgiven me.

That was what I got for getting my hopes up for a future that was never meant to be mine. Am I setting myself up for disappointment again with Eliseo? My heart hurt so much that I wanted to tear it out.

Reed sat down beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in.

“He’ll be alright. The old fucker is too stubborn to die.”

I laughed a little at that. He was probably right.

Reed’s hand went to the back of my neck, massaging it, and I found myself getting tired. How long had we been awake? With all the shit that we had gone through, I was surprised we were all still sitting upright right now.

I could hear the other men’s snores across the fire, and it influenced my own mood. My eyes wanted to flutter closed the more Reed made me melt into him with his special hands.

“Fitri…” he whispered against my hair, and my body molded against him even more.

His body heat against mine reminded me of the way Eliseo woke me up with his cock between my legs. My pussy spasmed, wishing there was something to fill it up, to take my mind off things.